Category: British Air

Some airfares price considerably lower in one currency than another, or to persons in one country against another.

For example, this Loyalty Lobby blog post shows how a British Airways airfare from London to Budapest was priced 40% cheaper on a Chinese website than on the BA website. Same date, same time, same airplane, just 40% less.

Similarly, some airfares on Norwegian Airlines price out cheaper if you select Norwegian kroner instead of U.S. dollar.

Skyscanner.com is often a good place to go for such comparison shopping. You can enter whichever country, language and currency you want, then see what prices you get. Interestingly, it does not show prices to one of my bucket-list destinations, the Galapagos Islands.

And if you just want to fly but aren’t decided where, Skyscanner’s “Explore our Map” page will show you destinations all over the world and the airfare to get there from your home airport.

The AARP (formerly American Association of Retired Persons, or something like that) is a national organization for persons age 50 or over. You do not have to be retired to join, and you do not have to be age 50+…children can be members of AARP.

Here are two of the less-heralded benefits of membership:

Discount on trans-Atlantic flights on British Airways. You can save up to $200 per person on airfare. If your children or grandchildren will be accompanying you, sign them up as AARP members first.

Free admission to big-name movies

The free movies benefit is of more interest to me. For example, next week there will be a special showing of the movie Wonder Wheel in Austin, free to AARP members.

AARP membership is inexpensive, at $16 / year (even less your first year). Spouse/partner membership is free.

One unexpected benefit of AARP membership is a substantial discount on trans-Atlantic British Air flights. The discount ranges from $65 up to $400 per person. Best of all, anyone of any age can join AARP for just $16.

This blog post tells everything you want to know about British Air Avios points.

The first portion of the post is concerned with the current 50% bonus promotion, then the remainder of the post tells how to use Avios to best advantage for travel on OneWorld airlines. It is very comprehensive.

Back in April Dan’s Deals posted a chart showing the number of frequent-flyer miles needed from travel from New York City to almost everywhere. Six airlines are included in the chart, as well as Coach and Business classes.

We see lots of deeply discounted airfares from major cities like New York and Los Angeles, but not so often from smaller places like Austin and San Antonio. Now Delta and American Airlines, and their partners, have addressed that with round-trip fares to Europe as low as $529.

American Airlines and British Air are offering flights from Chicago ORD to London LHR for $553 round-trip, from September 2016 all the way to May 2017. Christmas and New Year’s are excluded from this low fare.